THE CHALLENGE

The Australian craft gin market is emerging, but already becoming highly competitive with up to 25 new gin brands set to emerge on the Australian market within 2016.

Toolbox set about creating a new brand for the Australian craft gin market which would look completely different to anything else on the shelves, whilst highlighting a premium price tier and top shelf quality product, with shelf appeal.

Naming and identity were crucial, along with selection and design of a bottle which would offer cut through on busy bar shelves, whilst being memorable and creating a brand story.

THE SOLUTION

The Prohibition era in the US, during the 1920s created a huge groundswell of demand for gin, not seen again, until now. We sought to evoke the mystique and the clandestine spirit of the bootleggers of this era, its stories and its characters. The challenge from a design perspective was to bring the aesthetic of this era into a contemporary language and feel.

The design of the brand is a contemporary interpretation of this era of typography and detailing. The bottle shape is reminiscent of a hip flask, but with the build quality of a heavy decanter, reflective of the value of the product. The back label draws upon the form of the original prescription required to drink alcohol during prohibition. Whilst an image of the notorious ‘Purple Gang’ out of Detroit, famous bootleggers, shows a lineup of ‘likely suspects’ obscuring their identities in obvious 1920’s attire. This adorns the back label to be seen through the spirit from the front of the package.